Charity
and Justice
The
order of society is based on two virtues: justice and charity. However,
justice presupposes a lot of love already, for one needs to love a
man a great deal in order to respect his rights, which limit our rights,
and his liberty, which hampers our liberty. Justice has its limits
whereas charity knows none.
Charity
is the Samaritan who pours oil on the wounds of the traveler who has
been attacked. It is justice's role to prevent the attack.
Charity
must never look to the past, but always to the future, because the
number of its past works is still very small and the present and future
miseries that it must alleviate are infinite.
Rights
of Workers
Exploitation
occurs when the master considers his workers not as a partner nor
even as an assistant, but as an instrument out of which he must extract
as much service as possible at the smallest possible price. Yet the
exploitation of a man by another man is slavery. The worker-machine
is nothing more than part of capital like the slaves of the ancients.
Service becomes servitude.
Research
and Advocacy for the Poor
We
must investigate doctrine and measures which would aim at guaranteeing
for workers a correct proportion between labor and rest ... and a
pension for their old age.
Social
Structures and the Role of Youth
The
problem which divides people today is not a political problem; it
is a social one. It is a matter of knowing which will get the upper
hand, the spirit of selfishness or the spirit of sacrifice; whether
society will go for ever-increasing enjoyment and profit, or for everyone
devoting themselves to the common good ... Many people have too much
and still want more. Others do not have enough, or do not have anything
at all, and they want to take by force what is not being given to
them. A war is threatening between these two groups. On one side,
the power of wealth, on the other the force of desperation. We must
get in between these two groups, at least to reduce the impact if
we cannot stop it. Because we are young; because we are not wealthy,
we can more easily fill the role of mediators.
In
Frederic's theological vision, the Church (one, holy, catholic and apostolic)
had to be thoroughly in, though not of, the world. "We are not
blessed with two separate lives ... one for seeking the truth and the
other for putting it into practice."
One
One
only means of salvation remains to us, that is, that Christians, in
the name of love, interpose between the two camps (of rich and poor)
passing like beneficent deserters from one to the other ... communicating
mutual charity to all, until this charity, paralyzing and stifling
the egotism of both parties, and every day lessening their antipathies,
shall bid the two camps arise and break down the barriers of prejudice,
and cast aside their weapons of anger and march forth to meet each
other, not to fight but to mingle together in one embrace, so that
they may form but one fold under one pastor.
Holy
Will
we be satisfied to lament the barrenness of the present time, when
each bears in his heart a germ of holiness, which a simple desire
would be sufficient to develop? It we do not know how to love God
as the saints did, it is because we see God with the eyes of faith
alone, and faith is so weak. But the poor we see with the eyes of
flesh. They are present. We can put our fingers and our hands into
their wounds, the marks of the crown of thorns are plainly visible
on their heads. There is no place for unbelief here ... You poor are
the visible image of the God whom we do not see, but whom we love
in loving you.
Catholic
A
Catholic university (Louvain) should be a cause of rejoicing to the
Church, to see raised within her yet another monument to the immortal
alliance of Science and Faith.
Apostolic
You
have felt the emptiness of material pleasures, you have felt the hunger
for truth crying out within you; you have gone for light and comfort
to the barren philosophy of modern apostles. You have not found food
for your souls there. The religion of your forefathers appears before
you today with full hands; do not turn away, for it is generous. It
also, like you, is young. It does not grow old with the world. Ever
renewing itself, it keeps pace with progress, and it alone leads to
perfection.
